Autonomous vehicle technology is still in its infancy, which means that most self-driving vehicles still have a way for humans to take over when needed. But as Komatsu demonstrates with a design for a new autonomous dump truck, in some cases there are real advantages to eliminating humans altogether.

After decades of strife, occupation, and conflict, Afghanistan has been left pockmarked with an estimated ten million anti-personnel landmines in its soils. It's a bad situation. There are mines like the the Soviet PFM-1 butterfly mine—especially popular with small children, who mistake it for a toy. But an…